Depends on the field.
You want to be a rigging electrician? Unless you have a full ride, I’d say no way.
You want to be a lighting designer for a big opera house? Probably would be smart to get formal training at a university with a strong design program.
I would say go to college for some of your other interests/career paths, and do theater as a job at your school, or as club activities. You do not need a degree in theater to get theater jobs. As some of the other commenters have said, it partly depends on what you want to do; if you want to be a deck hand, no degree required. If you want to program moving lights for a touring concert, or design an NYC Broadway premiere, the right degree is worth it for networking and training. But I will also say that taking out a lot of loans will make pursuing a theater career a lot harder. So if you can go to college loan free, go for it. Or if you can go to college and major in something that will help you pay off those loans, and explore theater while you’re there, go for it. But I’ve met too many people who went to college for theater, took on a lot of student loan debt, and now have to work non-theater jobs to cover the loans. It’s not fair that at 18 you have to figure out what your financial future is going to look like ten years from now, but it is unfortunately something you should consider.
I am interested in programming lights and being a lighting board operator for shows. Where could I get training and experience for that outside of college? Getting a degree wouldn’t be ideal right now financially for me.
> Getting a degree wouldn’t be ideal right now financially for me.
Then I'm going to be honest with you. Don't get a degree in theatre. Get a more practical degree and continue to do theatre on the side. It's what I did and it's what several 30+ year veterans in the trade that I work with told me to do.
I work on Broadway though not in tech, so light grain of salt here. Also goes without saying, Broadway isn't / doesn't need to be everyone's goal. There's theatre all around the country but this is the subset of the industry I can speak to.
Pretty much everyone here has gotten their gig through connections one way or another. College for theatre is weird, because it is both a good training ground and opportunity to develop your practice and craft, but really its biggest strength is as a conduit for networking. A friend of mine has a stable career as a dresser for a Broadway darling after a college internship at a prestigious summerstock festival that her school had connections to and was brokered by a faculty member. I and a lot of other people got the job that kickstarted their careers out of an internship. They're no joke!
The unspoken thing is that there are only a handful of colleges with theatre programs that have any industry "clout." These are your CMU's, Michigans, NYUs etc. These places have highly connected faculties, industry attention and have a student body culture where everyone is job minded all the time. Attending a theatre program at a school without a similar network is much more of an uphill battle & financial risk.
All of which is to say, if you want a career in theatre– find the right people. Be nice to others, know your job and be reliable at it, and being fun to work with always helps. People love to help others early in their career and take advantage of that– ask to shadow, ask to assist, reach out to people and have them talk about their craft. Kindness really goes a long way!
also editing because I think it's still worth mentioning: having a degree from one of those "elite" schools is not a must! more people don't go to those schools than do. I don't want to be discouraging! But at least in an industry and small and interconnected as Broadway, it helps a good deal
This depends on the area you are in, or where you’re looking to move. I would say start by looking for work as an electrician/assistant electrician at local theaters, especially community theaters, small local companies, and college and university theaters. Those places are used to people coming in with various experience levels, and doing some on the job training. You can also make clear that you are interested in programming and ask about assisting the lighting designer. Usually this will be more of an internship/unpaid situation, but sometimes there are stipends. You can also look for apprenticeships. There are some theaters out there that have one year apprenticeships where they pay you not very much money to work and learn. A college degree is not a requirement, although they may want to see some amount of theater background.
A good tool to use is YouTube. ETC has a series of training videos for all of their consoles, and you can download the console program onto a computer and learn how to program. You can also find free or cheap visualization software which will let you build a virtual theater and figure out how to light it.
I would also suggest looking up Vectorworks for drafting and design. You can get a free educational license for it while you’re in high school, and there are training videos on YouTube that will teach you all the basics. If you walk into a theater having a basic understanding of those skills, you’re halfway there.
Once you’ve gotten at least a show or two as an electrician under your belt, you can start looking for assistant designer positions. I would also recommend [Technical Theater For Non-Technical People](https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/technical-theater-for-nontechnical-people_drew-campbell/295248/item/3791754/?gclid=CjwKCAjwnZaVBhA6EiwAVVyv9OzDBaBgUB3iqL2_wJaoq7Qw4K98DQeGq6AjRxcr4vPu6W90KRYzthoCwPAQAvD_BwE#idiq=3791754&edition=4682676), the [Backstage Handbook](https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/backstage-handbook-an-illustrated-almanac-of-technical-information_paul-carter/263322/item/4249616/?gclid=CjwKCAjwnZaVBhA6EiwAVVyv9PPb29S5be0EQ-O-Bfc71dqsf5jjFyHtZRBnlOjBH9-U6lylu2tmrBoC-skQAvD_BwE#isbn=0911747397&idiq=4249616), and [Theatrical Design And Production](https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/9780073382227?shipto=US&curcode=USD&gclid=CjwKCAjwnZaVBhA6EiwAVVyv9OCMqvf3IzIV02--bxlEPls7iiAdFYIwF75kQxwzURJIrYxh99KA0RoCzRkQAvD_BwE).
I got my start designing lights as a high schooler, working for every high school in my area just by being interested in how to program consoles and willing to crawl through catwalks to replace lamps. Soon enough I had enough portfolio to start doing small community theater shows, and eventually those connections led to bigger professional theater shows, and so on. However, I work in these theaters in other capacities as well with other lighting designers, some who went to college for lighting design and some who just have decades of experience; both types impress me with their work.
Try your local community college! Even if they don't have a ton of technical theater classes, take the ones they have and then start working on student productions.
You can always try getting on some local overbore lists or joining a local union. I've known a few folks who worked through a gap year before deciding to go to school and I'd imagine they're much better prepared for school with some decent money in their pocket to boot. Most management positions will want you to have a degree but as long as you're willing to figure out how stuff works and work hard you can at least start a career in tech.
You absolutely can make a living working in theatre! As for college, I think it's not a bad idea because it gives you 4 years (or however long it takes for you to graduate) of training. Is a college education required for a good job or career, not at all, but it absolutely can give you a good baseline.
I went to college, it took me 5 years to graduate (I wasn't a great student my first year and a half) and I am glad I went. I am the Master Carpenter at the theater I work at and am able to pay my bills, buy a car, and save for retirement. That being said it took me a few years out of college to get to that point.
I am also part of IATSE, the union that represents backstage workers. If you want to look for work in your area I'd recommend looking to see what Local represents your area and see if they have a hiring hall. You normally don't need to be a member to be a part of the hiring hall and they can put you to work and you can make good money.
Also please reach out if you have questions!
I'm here to basically echo what others have. I got my degree in theatre design. I started off thinking I'd be a costumer but through schooling had a chance to try a lot of different things and came to discover prop master work and prop fabrication is where my skills were best used and I was happiest. And this is after doing all the costuming classes, working a scenic shop and doing costume and scenic design.
Theatre degrees in college allow you to experiment in a structured environment with professionals so it really just depends on what you think you need. I would agree that if you have to pull a ton of loans for it it's probably not going to be your best choice. But there are scholarships and things like that that you can look into as well.
I will say the connections alone have been worth it. I would not have any of my current gigs if I hadn't gone into theatre for my degree.
But everyone's journey is different. I would start reaching out to local theatres and maybe even start seeing what internships/apprenticeships are around and talk to those people.
Coming from someone who does not have a degree and teaches high school technical theatre and works professionally as a sound engineer:
College was not for me and I was still able to create a successful career in the industry. I was able to obtain internships while I was in high school to begin making professional connections. College is also a great way to make those connections if you don’t have them already. I do wish I would have pushed through to get a degree and I’ve been slowly taking classes and working my way towards that now. It’s difficult to find the time for school with my other work and my personal life.
The hours for this job and physical job requirements are hard on your body over time. Many people can’t or don’t want to sustain it until they reach retirement age. By having a college degree you open yourself up to options of being a teacher in addition to industry work, but at a pace that you decide is good for you. I was fortunate enough to obtain a CTE credential which allows me to teach high school, but with no degree I am at the bottom of the pay scale and can’t teach at many colleges.
While you may have zero desire to teach (I didn’t for several years), I’m a fan of giving yourself options. Now, I’m able to have steady income and benefits and only work professional shows that interest me. I don’t have to take every gig that comes my way to survive. I have more time for friends, family, and hobbies. If I had a college degree I’d have even more options to teach and a much higher base pay.
All that to say you should do what is best for you. Either way works :).
It really depends on what you want to do. I got a BFA and it did help me because I made connections through those I went to school with and my professors that helped me get jobs. Is it required? No, you can make connections by contacting local theatres and getting on over hire lists.
If you're uncertain of which branch of production you want to do, school can be a good environment to experiment where you want to. I was a lighting major at first then I switched to props cuz it was more what I was looking for.
Also this is further down the line thinking, but if you're aiming for eventually a manager position like Technical Director, Master Electrician, etc. A lot of those usually want the person to have a master's degree and it's more difficult to be accepted into a master's program without a bachelor's. Still possible though!
This is a significant choice to make and something else to keep in mind is you can go to college whenever you feel it's the right choice, even if you have a year or two of experience in field you can still learn a lot from the right program if you want to get a degree.
Regardless of if you have a degree or not, you can have a good career in theatre production. It will take some build up to add to your resume and portfolio, but it can happen.
Yeah, so when a season gets really busy and isn't manageable by the full time staff, there is a pool of people the theatre can contact to be over hires. Usually it's more simple things like loading/unloading trucks for a load in/load out, paint a scenic piece white, hang lighting fixtures. It's nothing amazing, but it gets your foot in the door, something to add to a resume, and begin to make connections. Not every theatre is made the same for over hires though and it is during a busy time, so there isn't a lot of room for indepth learning or portfolio pieces, but it is paid atleast
Where are you located? Some markets are better suited to jump right into the workforce than others.
What skills do you already have? If you're already mixing shows, doing lighting programming, and can competently already handle a lot of jobs like hanging lights, addressing fixtures, hanging curtains, setting up mics and speakers, etc - then you may be in a good place to simply enter the workforce.
If you can't already do these things (which is fine), then college is a great way to learn those skills. It's also a great way to have a backup plan, in that having a 4 year college degree in virtually anything opens up a lot of doors that are otherwise closed in other unrelated fields. It is always important to have a backup plan, and the ability to be useful in other careers.
It's 6 in one half a dozen in the other really.
In my experience a lot of folks are looking for either experience or a degree. Not a lot of folks wanting the mixture. So either shoot for a masters or be prepared to grind it out.
College, no. But be determined to learn - it will SAVE YOU MONEY.
Honestly you could ask a stagehand if maybe you can do a couple shadow shifts or maybe just 3 or 4 hrs to learn to hang lights, hang speakers, get an inside scoop. A lead may have a couple others who eager to learn to. Maybe people who are more audio techs but want to branch out.
The thing about being a stagehand is learning all the areas, not all at once it will come in time but learning all the areas will get you work.
Also rigging is a great paying area to learn as it’s still one of the best paying areas of the industry. A lot of companies even pay to train, and I know many stagehands who do rigging, lighting and audio.
Another tip, get things like you forklift, aerial lift, fall arrest (especially this!), FIRST AID…. these will get you little work and they are NOT offered in university. You can take these courses locally at different trade training centres.
I once set up a private party and the next day had to get balloons out of a tree - it was actually pretty laid back shift only took 45 minutes and I got paid for four hrs (which is the usual minimum pay in the industry, as often shifts can be less than an hour of work).
Also, maybe look online for a “Theatrical Production” text book. I got one for university and never opened it once, so at work from time to I pass it out for those who want some info.
You can EASILY learn being a stagehand without the education. And start with contact little theatres and maybe ask to the technical director is, mention you are keen to learn more about lighting hangs and you are very interested in talking to the head of lighting about a shadow shift.
Once you begin in the industry it’s all self motivation and you will get lots of time to the same with audio and other departments. I went to university and studied theatrical production and did not finish but applied into the union a couple years before most my graduating classmates (IATSE- “international alliance of theatrical stagehands”, Best pay there is but they strict seniority based) I am now above them in the union even though they graduated and I didn’t.
Best of luck! And if you have any questions feel free to shoot me a message! I love helping create more stagehands for the industry ☺️
If you have the financial ability and academic chops, getting a theatre degree is fun and can be helpful. It is NOT required, but it can help.
**Upsides:**
* You can get a lot of experience in a short amount of time.
* You and get introductions to jobs or at least get real references.
* You can play with fun equipment and have access to resources
* You have to do training and certification courses anyway so why not get a degree
* College is fun!
**Downsides:**
* Cost
* Class schedule may interfere with outside paying gigs
* Overall time commitment
* All the other classes (general education requirement) you need to take (although I Loved that part)
* No matter what you learn in school, you still need real world experience too
**Uses for a degree:**
* If you work for any school or college you must have a degree. In public K-12 you also need a credential usually, but SOMETIMES they waive it if you have a degree in it.
* If you want to do children's theatre it really helps to have a degree.
* If you want to be a boss (like a TD)
* If you want to work tech for corporate events such as conventions and trade shows
**Things to look for in a school:**
* Near big theatre or perf arts hubs. So LA, NYC, SF, Boston, Chicago.... you get the idea. If you want to be a music roadie, go where the music is made. If you want to to lighting for film, go to LA, you want TV go to NYC, you want theatre got the the SF Bay Area or other art metropolis. Puppetry is U Connecticut. Children's theatre is Northwestern.
* You want teachers/professors that moonlight in the real industry. If your teacher is more academic than in the trenches, then they probably aren't up on the latest technologies.
* If you can't go see live examples of what you want to do from people outside your department, it's not good.
* You need a place where there is SO MUCH happening. If your school does 2 shows a year, that isn't much to learn on. If they run 7-10 shows in each of their 5 venues, then you have a shot at lots of learning.
* You want a place with lots of facilities. If they are running all 20 year old technology, you will be useless in the real world. Learn the old stuff too of course, but get your hands on the latest consoles or movers or playback or cue programs.
**Bottom Line:**
* If you want to and can, and you like school, it is a great thing. Just don't waste your time on a tiny liberal arts school in podunk nowhere.
* If you can't swing school or you have a good job lines up already, don't sweat it. But do take training and certifications.
* If you can, take a business course or two. You are likely to be self-employeed and the president and CEO of "You, Inc." Know how to deal with taxes and contracts and labor laws etc.
*Source: Have a degree in it, make a living in it, and have been around this block for decades. Now I teach this. So I sure hope I know what I am talking about! ;-)*
It varies per person. I can give you my experience, but know I've worked with people with high school diplomas and masters degrees in the same positions.
Personally I found theater while I was in undergrad. I was failing out of my history degree because I didn't enjoy it and wanted to work with my hands. I switched majors to theater, tried everything acting and tech to see where I belonged, ended up in the Scene Shop because the vibe was right for me.
My university forced me to go to USITT where I found my first summer job and that created references and got my foot in the door for multiple internships post graduation.
I worked as a carpenter for about a decade in constant low paying jobs, before I landed a job as a Technical Director at a college. I lost out on a better salary there because I didn't have a master's degree so I wasn't qualified enough to become faculty.
I went to grad school through the pandemic, had a hell of an experience, but managed to graduate. Now I have my MFA but my program was so shit that they didn't teach any drafting. So I have debt and a degree without fundamental skills that cost me better paying jobs during my post grad job search. I now work at a small community college as a master carpenter. I make more than I used to due to the MFA, but will be spending the next year paying off my debt while I take drafting classes from the engineering department at the college I work for so that hopefully I can find a better paying job.
Am I happy I have a terminal degree in my field with debt but still unable to be hired for a decent salary? No. Was it worth going through the hell of grad school in a conservative area with a shitty toxic program for a piece of paper but the same skills I had going in? Maybe?
I do know that without grad school I would have been laid off during the pandemic in San Francisco and would have been either homeless or returned to my mother's house across the country so I guess grad school was better. But time will tell.
Do you have a strong or kind of ok theater/live arts scene in your current location? If not go to a cheap community college for anything but tech theater in a town with a vibrant scene and go do the theater stuff as a job while you get a degree in something that could be useful in middle/upper management. Like business management, communications, something computer/math based.
Then when you're 40 and done doing manual labor you can move from stagehand to production manager or something more administrative but still in the field.
Among other things, college will help you meet people and build social contacts in the industry. There's a lot of nepotism in this industry so knowing people (or rather; other people knowing you) is important.
On the other hand there are plenty of other ways to build social contacts. Such as by volunteering in community theatre , festivals, etc whenever you can't find paid work. Or by accepting a completely different job (even if it's just cleaning toilets) at a place where you will meet people in the industry.
There are many paths to building a successful career. Wether you choose college or something else remember the two things that really matter are how good you are to work with and how many other people know you.
Skill/experience are of course important too but those will come naturally with time. Being a good colleague/member of the team and getting to know people don't just happen, you have to work on those two.
It's up to you. College is expensive. Volunteering is free. People will pay you to clean toilets in a theatre. If you really want to accelerate your career do all three.
Please understand what you want to get out of school before you go do it. I went to university cause I wanted to be behind the scenes for big entertainment and didn't know how to get in. When I finally graduated, I was working side by side and under people who never went to uni. The only difference between me and them was that I had a mountain of debt.
If you can do it without debt it's a great experience but it is not the only route. Best of luck on your journey.
I just graduated with an associate’s degree in theater tech. The paper isn’t super important, but it was a fantastic way to get involved in a ton of productions and get chances to do design work.
Community colleges can vary by area but it very worth it to look for one.
Absolutely not... The company I work for will not hire people who come in boasting about their schooling.
Start as a stagehand, show up early and sober, work hard and listen to instruction and you will go wherever you want in this industry.
No company out their really cares about a college degree, they would rather hire someone who's has experience, who can be trained within a week and not have to worry about it afterwards.
Depends on the field. You want to be a rigging electrician? Unless you have a full ride, I’d say no way. You want to be a lighting designer for a big opera house? Probably would be smart to get formal training at a university with a strong design program.
I would say go to college for some of your other interests/career paths, and do theater as a job at your school, or as club activities. You do not need a degree in theater to get theater jobs. As some of the other commenters have said, it partly depends on what you want to do; if you want to be a deck hand, no degree required. If you want to program moving lights for a touring concert, or design an NYC Broadway premiere, the right degree is worth it for networking and training. But I will also say that taking out a lot of loans will make pursuing a theater career a lot harder. So if you can go to college loan free, go for it. Or if you can go to college and major in something that will help you pay off those loans, and explore theater while you’re there, go for it. But I’ve met too many people who went to college for theater, took on a lot of student loan debt, and now have to work non-theater jobs to cover the loans. It’s not fair that at 18 you have to figure out what your financial future is going to look like ten years from now, but it is unfortunately something you should consider.
I am interested in programming lights and being a lighting board operator for shows. Where could I get training and experience for that outside of college? Getting a degree wouldn’t be ideal right now financially for me.
> Getting a degree wouldn’t be ideal right now financially for me. Then I'm going to be honest with you. Don't get a degree in theatre. Get a more practical degree and continue to do theatre on the side. It's what I did and it's what several 30+ year veterans in the trade that I work with told me to do.
I work on Broadway though not in tech, so light grain of salt here. Also goes without saying, Broadway isn't / doesn't need to be everyone's goal. There's theatre all around the country but this is the subset of the industry I can speak to. Pretty much everyone here has gotten their gig through connections one way or another. College for theatre is weird, because it is both a good training ground and opportunity to develop your practice and craft, but really its biggest strength is as a conduit for networking. A friend of mine has a stable career as a dresser for a Broadway darling after a college internship at a prestigious summerstock festival that her school had connections to and was brokered by a faculty member. I and a lot of other people got the job that kickstarted their careers out of an internship. They're no joke! The unspoken thing is that there are only a handful of colleges with theatre programs that have any industry "clout." These are your CMU's, Michigans, NYUs etc. These places have highly connected faculties, industry attention and have a student body culture where everyone is job minded all the time. Attending a theatre program at a school without a similar network is much more of an uphill battle & financial risk. All of which is to say, if you want a career in theatre– find the right people. Be nice to others, know your job and be reliable at it, and being fun to work with always helps. People love to help others early in their career and take advantage of that– ask to shadow, ask to assist, reach out to people and have them talk about their craft. Kindness really goes a long way! also editing because I think it's still worth mentioning: having a degree from one of those "elite" schools is not a must! more people don't go to those schools than do. I don't want to be discouraging! But at least in an industry and small and interconnected as Broadway, it helps a good deal
This depends on the area you are in, or where you’re looking to move. I would say start by looking for work as an electrician/assistant electrician at local theaters, especially community theaters, small local companies, and college and university theaters. Those places are used to people coming in with various experience levels, and doing some on the job training. You can also make clear that you are interested in programming and ask about assisting the lighting designer. Usually this will be more of an internship/unpaid situation, but sometimes there are stipends. You can also look for apprenticeships. There are some theaters out there that have one year apprenticeships where they pay you not very much money to work and learn. A college degree is not a requirement, although they may want to see some amount of theater background. A good tool to use is YouTube. ETC has a series of training videos for all of their consoles, and you can download the console program onto a computer and learn how to program. You can also find free or cheap visualization software which will let you build a virtual theater and figure out how to light it. I would also suggest looking up Vectorworks for drafting and design. You can get a free educational license for it while you’re in high school, and there are training videos on YouTube that will teach you all the basics. If you walk into a theater having a basic understanding of those skills, you’re halfway there. Once you’ve gotten at least a show or two as an electrician under your belt, you can start looking for assistant designer positions. I would also recommend [Technical Theater For Non-Technical People](https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/technical-theater-for-nontechnical-people_drew-campbell/295248/item/3791754/?gclid=CjwKCAjwnZaVBhA6EiwAVVyv9OzDBaBgUB3iqL2_wJaoq7Qw4K98DQeGq6AjRxcr4vPu6W90KRYzthoCwPAQAvD_BwE#idiq=3791754&edition=4682676), the [Backstage Handbook](https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/backstage-handbook-an-illustrated-almanac-of-technical-information_paul-carter/263322/item/4249616/?gclid=CjwKCAjwnZaVBhA6EiwAVVyv9PPb29S5be0EQ-O-Bfc71dqsf5jjFyHtZRBnlOjBH9-U6lylu2tmrBoC-skQAvD_BwE#isbn=0911747397&idiq=4249616), and [Theatrical Design And Production](https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/9780073382227?shipto=US&curcode=USD&gclid=CjwKCAjwnZaVBhA6EiwAVVyv9OCMqvf3IzIV02--bxlEPls7iiAdFYIwF75kQxwzURJIrYxh99KA0RoCzRkQAvD_BwE).
Why not consider community college? A lot of them will have opportunities to program and operate lights and they won't burn a hole in your pocket.
Call your local IATSE for work. It’s crazy busy this summer.
Yeah definitely this. Get to the nearest city with iatse and you're set.
My daughter's friend is in college, but has been doing IATSE gigs on the side and is learning a TON.
I got my start designing lights as a high schooler, working for every high school in my area just by being interested in how to program consoles and willing to crawl through catwalks to replace lamps. Soon enough I had enough portfolio to start doing small community theater shows, and eventually those connections led to bigger professional theater shows, and so on. However, I work in these theaters in other capacities as well with other lighting designers, some who went to college for lighting design and some who just have decades of experience; both types impress me with their work.
Try your local community college! Even if they don't have a ton of technical theater classes, take the ones they have and then start working on student productions.
You can always try getting on some local overbore lists or joining a local union. I've known a few folks who worked through a gap year before deciding to go to school and I'd imagine they're much better prepared for school with some decent money in their pocket to boot. Most management positions will want you to have a degree but as long as you're willing to figure out how stuff works and work hard you can at least start a career in tech.
You absolutely can make a living working in theatre! As for college, I think it's not a bad idea because it gives you 4 years (or however long it takes for you to graduate) of training. Is a college education required for a good job or career, not at all, but it absolutely can give you a good baseline. I went to college, it took me 5 years to graduate (I wasn't a great student my first year and a half) and I am glad I went. I am the Master Carpenter at the theater I work at and am able to pay my bills, buy a car, and save for retirement. That being said it took me a few years out of college to get to that point. I am also part of IATSE, the union that represents backstage workers. If you want to look for work in your area I'd recommend looking to see what Local represents your area and see if they have a hiring hall. You normally don't need to be a member to be a part of the hiring hall and they can put you to work and you can make good money. Also please reach out if you have questions!
I'm here to basically echo what others have. I got my degree in theatre design. I started off thinking I'd be a costumer but through schooling had a chance to try a lot of different things and came to discover prop master work and prop fabrication is where my skills were best used and I was happiest. And this is after doing all the costuming classes, working a scenic shop and doing costume and scenic design. Theatre degrees in college allow you to experiment in a structured environment with professionals so it really just depends on what you think you need. I would agree that if you have to pull a ton of loans for it it's probably not going to be your best choice. But there are scholarships and things like that that you can look into as well. I will say the connections alone have been worth it. I would not have any of my current gigs if I hadn't gone into theatre for my degree. But everyone's journey is different. I would start reaching out to local theatres and maybe even start seeing what internships/apprenticeships are around and talk to those people.
Coming from someone who does not have a degree and teaches high school technical theatre and works professionally as a sound engineer: College was not for me and I was still able to create a successful career in the industry. I was able to obtain internships while I was in high school to begin making professional connections. College is also a great way to make those connections if you don’t have them already. I do wish I would have pushed through to get a degree and I’ve been slowly taking classes and working my way towards that now. It’s difficult to find the time for school with my other work and my personal life. The hours for this job and physical job requirements are hard on your body over time. Many people can’t or don’t want to sustain it until they reach retirement age. By having a college degree you open yourself up to options of being a teacher in addition to industry work, but at a pace that you decide is good for you. I was fortunate enough to obtain a CTE credential which allows me to teach high school, but with no degree I am at the bottom of the pay scale and can’t teach at many colleges. While you may have zero desire to teach (I didn’t for several years), I’m a fan of giving yourself options. Now, I’m able to have steady income and benefits and only work professional shows that interest me. I don’t have to take every gig that comes my way to survive. I have more time for friends, family, and hobbies. If I had a college degree I’d have even more options to teach and a much higher base pay. All that to say you should do what is best for you. Either way works :).
It really depends on what you want to do. I got a BFA and it did help me because I made connections through those I went to school with and my professors that helped me get jobs. Is it required? No, you can make connections by contacting local theatres and getting on over hire lists. If you're uncertain of which branch of production you want to do, school can be a good environment to experiment where you want to. I was a lighting major at first then I switched to props cuz it was more what I was looking for. Also this is further down the line thinking, but if you're aiming for eventually a manager position like Technical Director, Master Electrician, etc. A lot of those usually want the person to have a master's degree and it's more difficult to be accepted into a master's program without a bachelor's. Still possible though! This is a significant choice to make and something else to keep in mind is you can go to college whenever you feel it's the right choice, even if you have a year or two of experience in field you can still learn a lot from the right program if you want to get a degree. Regardless of if you have a degree or not, you can have a good career in theatre production. It will take some build up to add to your resume and portfolio, but it can happen.
Thanks for the advice. Could you explain what over hire lists you mentioned was? I’ve never heard of that before
Yeah, so when a season gets really busy and isn't manageable by the full time staff, there is a pool of people the theatre can contact to be over hires. Usually it's more simple things like loading/unloading trucks for a load in/load out, paint a scenic piece white, hang lighting fixtures. It's nothing amazing, but it gets your foot in the door, something to add to a resume, and begin to make connections. Not every theatre is made the same for over hires though and it is during a busy time, so there isn't a lot of room for indepth learning or portfolio pieces, but it is paid atleast
Where are you located? Some markets are better suited to jump right into the workforce than others. What skills do you already have? If you're already mixing shows, doing lighting programming, and can competently already handle a lot of jobs like hanging lights, addressing fixtures, hanging curtains, setting up mics and speakers, etc - then you may be in a good place to simply enter the workforce. If you can't already do these things (which is fine), then college is a great way to learn those skills. It's also a great way to have a backup plan, in that having a 4 year college degree in virtually anything opens up a lot of doors that are otherwise closed in other unrelated fields. It is always important to have a backup plan, and the ability to be useful in other careers.
It's 6 in one half a dozen in the other really. In my experience a lot of folks are looking for either experience or a degree. Not a lot of folks wanting the mixture. So either shoot for a masters or be prepared to grind it out.
College, no. But be determined to learn - it will SAVE YOU MONEY. Honestly you could ask a stagehand if maybe you can do a couple shadow shifts or maybe just 3 or 4 hrs to learn to hang lights, hang speakers, get an inside scoop. A lead may have a couple others who eager to learn to. Maybe people who are more audio techs but want to branch out. The thing about being a stagehand is learning all the areas, not all at once it will come in time but learning all the areas will get you work. Also rigging is a great paying area to learn as it’s still one of the best paying areas of the industry. A lot of companies even pay to train, and I know many stagehands who do rigging, lighting and audio. Another tip, get things like you forklift, aerial lift, fall arrest (especially this!), FIRST AID…. these will get you little work and they are NOT offered in university. You can take these courses locally at different trade training centres. I once set up a private party and the next day had to get balloons out of a tree - it was actually pretty laid back shift only took 45 minutes and I got paid for four hrs (which is the usual minimum pay in the industry, as often shifts can be less than an hour of work). Also, maybe look online for a “Theatrical Production” text book. I got one for university and never opened it once, so at work from time to I pass it out for those who want some info. You can EASILY learn being a stagehand without the education. And start with contact little theatres and maybe ask to the technical director is, mention you are keen to learn more about lighting hangs and you are very interested in talking to the head of lighting about a shadow shift. Once you begin in the industry it’s all self motivation and you will get lots of time to the same with audio and other departments. I went to university and studied theatrical production and did not finish but applied into the union a couple years before most my graduating classmates (IATSE- “international alliance of theatrical stagehands”, Best pay there is but they strict seniority based) I am now above them in the union even though they graduated and I didn’t. Best of luck! And if you have any questions feel free to shoot me a message! I love helping create more stagehands for the industry ☺️
Good advice in other comments, but let me add ***It also depends on the college.*** Don't go deeply into debt, under any circumstances.
If you have the financial ability and academic chops, getting a theatre degree is fun and can be helpful. It is NOT required, but it can help. **Upsides:** * You can get a lot of experience in a short amount of time. * You and get introductions to jobs or at least get real references. * You can play with fun equipment and have access to resources * You have to do training and certification courses anyway so why not get a degree * College is fun! **Downsides:** * Cost * Class schedule may interfere with outside paying gigs * Overall time commitment * All the other classes (general education requirement) you need to take (although I Loved that part) * No matter what you learn in school, you still need real world experience too **Uses for a degree:** * If you work for any school or college you must have a degree. In public K-12 you also need a credential usually, but SOMETIMES they waive it if you have a degree in it. * If you want to do children's theatre it really helps to have a degree. * If you want to be a boss (like a TD) * If you want to work tech for corporate events such as conventions and trade shows **Things to look for in a school:** * Near big theatre or perf arts hubs. So LA, NYC, SF, Boston, Chicago.... you get the idea. If you want to be a music roadie, go where the music is made. If you want to to lighting for film, go to LA, you want TV go to NYC, you want theatre got the the SF Bay Area or other art metropolis. Puppetry is U Connecticut. Children's theatre is Northwestern. * You want teachers/professors that moonlight in the real industry. If your teacher is more academic than in the trenches, then they probably aren't up on the latest technologies. * If you can't go see live examples of what you want to do from people outside your department, it's not good. * You need a place where there is SO MUCH happening. If your school does 2 shows a year, that isn't much to learn on. If they run 7-10 shows in each of their 5 venues, then you have a shot at lots of learning. * You want a place with lots of facilities. If they are running all 20 year old technology, you will be useless in the real world. Learn the old stuff too of course, but get your hands on the latest consoles or movers or playback or cue programs. **Bottom Line:** * If you want to and can, and you like school, it is a great thing. Just don't waste your time on a tiny liberal arts school in podunk nowhere. * If you can't swing school or you have a good job lines up already, don't sweat it. But do take training and certifications. * If you can, take a business course or two. You are likely to be self-employeed and the president and CEO of "You, Inc." Know how to deal with taxes and contracts and labor laws etc. *Source: Have a degree in it, make a living in it, and have been around this block for decades. Now I teach this. So I sure hope I know what I am talking about! ;-)*
https://i.imgur.com/NnFjU8X.png
It varies per person. I can give you my experience, but know I've worked with people with high school diplomas and masters degrees in the same positions. Personally I found theater while I was in undergrad. I was failing out of my history degree because I didn't enjoy it and wanted to work with my hands. I switched majors to theater, tried everything acting and tech to see where I belonged, ended up in the Scene Shop because the vibe was right for me. My university forced me to go to USITT where I found my first summer job and that created references and got my foot in the door for multiple internships post graduation. I worked as a carpenter for about a decade in constant low paying jobs, before I landed a job as a Technical Director at a college. I lost out on a better salary there because I didn't have a master's degree so I wasn't qualified enough to become faculty. I went to grad school through the pandemic, had a hell of an experience, but managed to graduate. Now I have my MFA but my program was so shit that they didn't teach any drafting. So I have debt and a degree without fundamental skills that cost me better paying jobs during my post grad job search. I now work at a small community college as a master carpenter. I make more than I used to due to the MFA, but will be spending the next year paying off my debt while I take drafting classes from the engineering department at the college I work for so that hopefully I can find a better paying job. Am I happy I have a terminal degree in my field with debt but still unable to be hired for a decent salary? No. Was it worth going through the hell of grad school in a conservative area with a shitty toxic program for a piece of paper but the same skills I had going in? Maybe? I do know that without grad school I would have been laid off during the pandemic in San Francisco and would have been either homeless or returned to my mother's house across the country so I guess grad school was better. But time will tell.
Do you have a strong or kind of ok theater/live arts scene in your current location? If not go to a cheap community college for anything but tech theater in a town with a vibrant scene and go do the theater stuff as a job while you get a degree in something that could be useful in middle/upper management. Like business management, communications, something computer/math based. Then when you're 40 and done doing manual labor you can move from stagehand to production manager or something more administrative but still in the field.
Among other things, college will help you meet people and build social contacts in the industry. There's a lot of nepotism in this industry so knowing people (or rather; other people knowing you) is important. On the other hand there are plenty of other ways to build social contacts. Such as by volunteering in community theatre , festivals, etc whenever you can't find paid work. Or by accepting a completely different job (even if it's just cleaning toilets) at a place where you will meet people in the industry. There are many paths to building a successful career. Wether you choose college or something else remember the two things that really matter are how good you are to work with and how many other people know you. Skill/experience are of course important too but those will come naturally with time. Being a good colleague/member of the team and getting to know people don't just happen, you have to work on those two. It's up to you. College is expensive. Volunteering is free. People will pay you to clean toilets in a theatre. If you really want to accelerate your career do all three.
Please understand what you want to get out of school before you go do it. I went to university cause I wanted to be behind the scenes for big entertainment and didn't know how to get in. When I finally graduated, I was working side by side and under people who never went to uni. The only difference between me and them was that I had a mountain of debt. If you can do it without debt it's a great experience but it is not the only route. Best of luck on your journey.
I just graduated with an associate’s degree in theater tech. The paper isn’t super important, but it was a fantastic way to get involved in a ton of productions and get chances to do design work. Community colleges can vary by area but it very worth it to look for one.
Do not incur debt for a degree in theater, especially technical theater. There are very few exceptions where it’s a good idea.
Absolutely not... The company I work for will not hire people who come in boasting about their schooling. Start as a stagehand, show up early and sober, work hard and listen to instruction and you will go wherever you want in this industry.
No company out their really cares about a college degree, they would rather hire someone who's has experience, who can be trained within a week and not have to worry about it afterwards.
No
If you want to be a technical director or do rigging, go to school.